Posts Tagged: Alex Hales

0500 Plus? Perhaps This Year

Firstly dear read­er an apo­logy for our lack of recent com­mu­nic­a­tion – we both appre­ci­ate it that people take the time to pour through our mus­ings and hope you con­tin­ue to do so.
Now down to business.
Back in August last year Eng­land did the unthink­able and broke the record for the highest ever one day inter­na­tion­al score, post­ing 444–3 – a run high­er than the pre­vi­ous total that had stood for a little over a decade.
It was a massive score – one that would have been seen as simply unachiev­able in years gone by. But the game, like England’s bat­ting order, has come on in spades in recent times with T20 crick­et lay­ing much of the found­a­tion for a new style of play.… Read Full Article

0Professional England See Off Tigerish Bangladesh

Well done Eng­land on a pro­fes­sion­al ODI series vic­tory against Bangladesh. The Tigers might not be viewed by all as the toughest oppon­ents and the vis­it­ors will cer­tainly face stern­er tests – but any Asi­an oppos­i­tion on home soil is any­thing but a pushover.… Read Full Article

0England vs Sri Lanka — any Lessons Learned?

The third and final test in the Eng­land vs Sri Lanka test series is now at an end after the rain brought a damp squib of an end to the match.
So what have we learned? Not a great deal really. We are almost where we were three tests ago. Nick Compton would appear not quite of test level is one obvi­ous con­clu­sion. Per­son­ally speak­ing I feel it would be a little harsh to jet­tis­on him – I would give him the Pakistan series to make a final decision on him. I doubt that will hap­pen, how­ever and Lords was the last we will see of him in the whites of the three lions.… Read Full Article

0Sachithra Senanayake Mankades (try saying that after a few beers!)

Crick­et is a sport in which most fol­low­ers expect their her­oes to adhere to a high­er stand­ard of fair play and sportsmanship.
The recent incid­ent of ‘Mankad­ing’ (who on earth coined that phrase?) – when Sri Lanka’s Sachi­thra Sen­anayake ran out England’s Jos But­tler who had strayed out of his crease at the non-striker’s end at a key point in the final and decid­ing ODI in the series was dis­ap­point­ing to see and thank­fully remains very rare.
The last incid­ent I can remem­ber is when Kapil Dev ran out South Africa’s Peter Kirsten, appar­ently without warn­ing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzbFy_elb8k
Dif­fer­ing accounts of Tuesday’s shambles say Sen­anayake warned But­tler twice or just the once. Either way, it wasn’t crick­et. The bowl­er shouldn’t have done it and the cap­tain should have over-ruled the appeal. He didn’t, it happened so we are left to count the cost of a strain on the game.
What I don’t like, how­ever, is Eng­land using this unsa­voury con­tro­versy to shield yet anoth­er highly mixed per­form­ance dur­ing a ODI series.
Sri Lanka are a decent side – but without the wick­et tak­ing machine that was Mut­ti­ah Mur­a­lithar­an in the line-up and home advant­age you would have expec­ted Eng­land to win the series.… Read Full Article